# Japan Forum > All Things Japanese >  Mongolian blue spot (֌Ô)

## A ke bono kane kotto

I recentlt heard about a very peculiar and intriguing thing. Japanese, and indeed most East Asian people have a big blue birthmark on their lower back and buttocks. It looks like a huge bruise. It disappears in childhood (often before age 5), but some people keep it into adulthood.

The scientific term is Mongolian macula. Turkish and some Eastern European people (like the Hungarians) also have it.

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## Glenski

uh, yeah. My kid has/had it. So?

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## FrustratedDave

My eldest had it for about 6 months, but my youngest never had it.

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## tokapi

Vast majority Chinese,Japanese & SE Asian ( exclude South Pacific populations like Malaysians etc ) babies have it.

A percentage of Hispanic people also have it.

The so-called Mongolian blue birthmark (蒙古斑) have been circulated in cyberspace these past few years by one particular NE Asian ethnicity fed by ultra-nationalistic-education that they're of " *unique pure* " Mongol origin,the one and only people in this world ( according to their school textbooks ) have " the blueish butt-mark " at birth.

Otherwise,Asian folks rarely ( I mean rarely ) bring up the topic or would mention it in casual conversations at all.

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## A ke bono kane kotto

> The so-called Mongolian blue birthmark (蒙古斑) have been circulated in cyberspace these past few years by one particular NE Asian ethnicity fed by ultra-nationalistic-education that they're of " *unique pure* " Mongol origin,the one and only people in this world ( according to their school textbooks ) have " the blueish butt-mark " at birth.


The Wikipedia page says that 25&#37; of the Hungarians have it. They look much more European than Asian though.

Apparently East Africans have it too. I don't think there is any connection between the Mongols and East Africans, except that all humans in the world can trace their roots back to East Africa about 100,000 years ago. Maybe the wave that emigrated to East Asia had carriers of the blue mark mutations, and other waves who colonised Europe, the Middle East and South Asia did not.

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## tokapi

> The Wikipedia page says that *25&#37; of the Hungarians have it*. 
> 
> *They look much more European* than Asian though.



Mongol Empire reached as far as Eastern Europe what's present-day Hungaria and occupied the area for some decades,this might explain it.

Also,Hungarian population has an admixture of people originally migrated from Central Asia many centuries ago.

Well,their " Asiatic-Mongol blood " thinned out after over one thousand years of intermixing with other Caucasoid-locals ( European tribes ).

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## GaijinPunch

My wife gets them on various places on her body, usually after talking back.

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## Zatoya

That's cool. I didn't know that. So they arent built like us after all.  :Laughing:

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